Question

Consider the following hypothetical diseases, and answer part A, B, and C below: Disease X is very deadly with a mortality rate >30%. However, it is only spread through bodily fluids and so is difficult to transmit between people. Disease Y produces mild symptoms, and has a mortality rate <1%. However, it can be spread through the air and remains infectious on unwashed surfaces. Because of this, it is extremely transmissible.

A) Which disease will require a higher vaccination rate to prevent its spread? (0.5 points) B) Explain what characteristics of the disease you chose in Part A make it a good candidate for high vaccination rates. (0.5 points) C) Explain how a sufficiently high vaccination rate leads to Herd Immunity at a population level. (1 point)

Answer 1

A) The disease Y requires an higher vaccination rate to prevent its spread .

B ) The spread through air and remains infectious on unwashed surfaces are the characteristics of the disease Y that taken for higher vaccination rates because ,the rate of spread of the disease is very fast and may become uncontrollable than the disease X which spreads by the body fluids .

C ) The higher vaccination rate allows the large amount of people to be vaccinated and the chance of non immune people that come into contact with the infectious disease is decreased and can becomes a barrier to the non immune people in the population and leads to herd immunity .